FIFA annual best voting revealed: The shifting Portuguese captain sparks controversy, with Cristiano Ronaldo heavily criticized.

The FIFA 2025 annual awards ceremony is over, where Dembélé was unquestionably named FIFA Best Player. Yet, the exposure of the national team voting results stirred major debate due to the changing Portuguese captain, and Ronaldo was strongly condemned.

In the FIFA 2025 Best National Team Captain voting (first-choice votes), Argentina’s captain Messi voted for Dembélé, Poland’s captain Lewandowski chose Yamal (a Barcelona teammate), China’s captain Zhang Yuning picked Mbappé, France’s captain Mbappé abstained (being friends with Dembélé), while the Portuguese captain’s vote confused everyone since Ronaldo was not the captain at that moment.

According to the voting data from various national team captains (highlighted in red), the Portuguese captain at that time was Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), who voted for his Portuguese teammate Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain). There’s nothing unusual about Silva voting for Vitinha—they are teammates on the Portuguese national team and were part of PSG’s treble-winning squad last season.

During matches, Ronaldo was the primary captain for Portugal, but during the voting phase, he was no longer captain. Yet, when competing for awards himself, Ronaldo was considered captain again. This inconsistency has sparked controversy, putting Ronaldo in the spotlight and drawing criticism. This situation has occurred multiple times with Portugal’s temporary captain changes in Ballon d’Or and FIFA Best Player voting.

Fans joked that with Pepe absent, the captaincy fell to Bernardo Silva. So the question arises: who really is the Portuguese captain? Truly a conflicted team. Some fans sarcastically replied, “What do you know? That’s the captain designated just for voting.” What’s your take on this?